On Thursday Donald Trump threatened to cut funding to Berkeley University, where demonstrators violently protested the arrival of a senior editor for the right-wing website Breitbart.

In a usual morning tweet, the US president threatened to cut off federal funding to the California University, a center of counter-culture and a stronghold of defenders of freedom of expression in the 1960s and 1970s.

“If UC Berkeley does not allow freedom of expression and practices violence on innocent people who have different views – NO FEDERAL FUNDS?” Wrote Mr. Trump, who appointed former Breitbart boss Steve Bannon as Counselor to the President.

Breitbart gave active support to Donald Trump during the White House race. And Bannon, who led the end of his campaign, became very influential in the White House, including getting involved in meetings of the powerful National Security Council.

If U.C. Berkeley does not allow free speech and practices violence on innocent people with a different point of view – NO FEDERAL FUNDS?

To protest against the arrival of the representative of Breitbart Milo Yiannopoulos, hundreds of demonstrators, mostly students, broke windows on the Berkeley campus on Wednesday night, set fire to wooden pallets and threw stones at the police. In return riot police reportedly shot the protesters with tear gas.

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The police closed the perimeter, and the university finally canceled Mr. Yiannopoulos’ conference, which was to be sold out.